Ozawa, Seiji ( born Sept. September 1, 1935 , Hoten, Manchukuo [now in China]Japanese American conductor especially noted for his energetic style and his sweeping performances of 19th-century Western symphonic works.

Ozawa showed interest in Western music as a child in Japan and hoped to become a pianist. At age 16 he sustained injuries to his hands and turned to conducting, studying with Hideo Saito at the Toho School in Tokyo. After conducting with the NHK (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai, or Japan Broadcasting System) Symphony Orchestra of Japan and the Japanese Philharmonic, in 1959 he went to Europe, where he won the Besançon International Conductors’ Competition. During the following summer he studied with Charles Munch at the Berkshire Music Center (now Tanglewood [Mass.Massachusetts] Music Center). There he won the Koussevitzky Prize, awarded to the best student conductor.

Ozawa was music director of the Ravinia Festival in Chicago from 1964 to 1968, of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1965 to 1969, and of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra from 1970 to 1976. For an extraordinarily long period (1973–2002) Ozawa served as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; during this period he was guest conductor for major opera and symphony orchestras around the world.

In 1984 he established the Saito Kinen Orchestra to honour his teacher at the Toho School, and in 1992 he cofounded the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan. He became principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera in 2002. Early in 2010 Ozawa underwent surgery for esophageal cancer, which forced him to retreat from the public stage for the better part of the year. He made his return to public performance at the Saito Kinen Festival that September, where he conducted the opening movement for each of four orchestral programs. In 2011 he was named the recipient of the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize for music.